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Cecil,
I agree with what you suggest as relevant problems and creative solutions. In the past you seem to have had an approach which was perhaps more adversarial at times. I’m not criticizing: it befitted a reporter and editor. I’m wondering how you will build coalition to achieve your worthy goals rather than dividing people by those who are with you and those who aren’t. Best–Andy

I’ve heard that question from others. As you allude, much of my public reputation was built on reporting on the bad guys. Reporting on the good guys mostly doesn’t qualify as news and what my readers never saw was all of the leads I followed, the tips I received, the effort I went to concerning good guys … who’s “stories” were simply rumors and therefore evaporated before any possible publication. I believe in public accountability for public officials, and I won’t hesitate to expose criminal or ethical wrongdoing. But, as for coalition building – I pulled together 50 nonprofit groups to create the Rolling Thunder Downhome Democracy event in Asheville. I have hosted an annual Human Rights Fair at my church with 20-30 participating groups for three years. I have a campaign organization right now that is coordinating the efforts of hundreds of volunteers, each of whom has a slightly different perspective on Asheville’s future. I am a coalition builder with a strict set of ethics. The golden rule. Tell the truth. Loyalty is earned, not granted. Equality is square one. If we can agree on those matters, our differences in policy, in practical approaches to problem solving, are simply a matter of getting all the facts from all of the stakeholders, and hammering out answers that will best serve the most people. I tend to figure that those who are with me are the very elitist group who want to breathe clean air, drink clean water, eat safe food, have quality health care and want to pass those benefits along to the next generation. (The rest are highly suspect and I may have trouble working with the non-breathing, non-drinking, not eating crowd who oppose taking care of the whole community.)

Cecil–we are reverse halfbacks who come to asheville for winter (imagine!) from Rhode Island…I have volunteered at Buncombe Jail for women and have program I am considering for women at prison…any way we could meet for coffee and talk? I am published writer, (Colleen Kelly mellor) and you may find my story on volunteering (I do this at prison in RI–teach women prisoners to write) and now I write a blog…”Encouragement in a Difficult World: Biddy Bytes Blog” at http://www.biffybytes.com

Could you also steer me in right direction to hire someone to give me help in WordPress, to facilitate my blog…I need to access social networks sites and I don’t know how to do the mechanics of this…